


Give Me A Chance

by thewhiitelotus



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Angst, F/M, really just so much angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-12
Updated: 2020-09-12
Packaged: 2021-03-06 22:01:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 499
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26416087
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thewhiitelotus/pseuds/thewhiitelotus
Summary: done for an angst challenge: Katara comforts Zuko when they fail, yet again, to conceive a child.
Relationships: Katara/Zuko (Avatar)
Comments: 11
Kudos: 39
Collections: Zutara Angst Challenge





	Give Me A Chance

She walks out of the washroom to an anxious, pacing Zuko, who turns to her immediately after she exits. There's a line of tension on his forehead, and he wrings his hands in front of him. She shakes her head as she fingers the sleeve of her nightshirt; his shoulders slump as his face falls, and his chest deflates around a heavy sigh.

“It’s alright, Zuko.” He sits on the edge of the ornate bed and cradles his head in his hands. “We can always try again.” She goes to sit with him, and feels his deep inhale coming when she lays her hand on his back.

“It’s my fault,” he mumbles, the words muffled by his hands before he drags them through his hair and turns to face her.

“Zuko—”

“No, I know it is.” 

They’d been trying to conceive for months now with no luck; Katara had even gone to Yugoda to check for any abnormalities after she couldn’t find any inside herself, but the master healer hadn’t found anything either. 

“We’ll keep trying.” She can see the cracks forming behind his eyes, the pressure building with each breath he takes.

“Right,” he says, voice quiet and weary. “We’ll try again, and I’ll fail again.”

“Hey...” She tucks a lock of hair behind his ear. “You’re not failing.”

“All I want—” Tears start to slip in a steady stream down his face. “I just want a chance to be a good father.” She tries to wipe them away, but more track down his face almost immediately. “I won’t be like him, Katara. I can’t be.” His voice breaks around a sob, and she pulls him farther up onto the bed so that he can curl into her side. She lets her own tears fall into his hair as she cards her fingers through it while he cries.

“You’re not like him, Zuko.”

“You don’t know that.” He raises his head to meet her eyes.

“You’re not—”

“You don’t know!” He sits up and turns to her before continuing. “You can’t say that, Katara! You don’t know what goes through my head! Sometimes I just—” his voice is scratchy, and his face is splotchy and crumpled like the sheets beneath them. “He’s still a part of me, no matter how much I try to get rid of him. I just want a chance to prove to myself that I’m not him.” Zuko falls back into her side. “I see him every time I look in the mirror.” She can barely hear him, but she can feel his lips move against her shoulder. “I see his face, and I see the scar, and…” He trails off, and the sobs start up again.

There’s nothing she can do but hold him and keep him in her arms where he’s safe. She lays a gentle kiss to the crown of his head, and whispers promises to him that she isn’t sure she can keep until he falls into an exhausted sleep.

**Author's Note:**

> 😥


End file.
